Organization Gaia
by bloomingred
Summary: Zack wakes up though he wasn't supposed to be waking up to anything at all. Then he's informed he has a chance to save the world all over again. But things are different this time around though Zack doesn't know it quite yet.
1. Chapter 1

Hi all! I've never written FF7 fanfiction before but I couldn't get this out of my head after playing Crisis Core so thought I'd write it down. Hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think!

**Organization Gaia Chapter 1**

He was dead. A moment earlier, Zack had been sure of the fact. Searing pain all over his body, Cloud's crying face, blank whiteness, and then blissful darkness. Even if he was strong, even if he was a First Class Soldier, he was _certain _even _he_ couldn't have lived through that many bullet holes.

But then again, there he was - back flat on a table, feeling quite vulnerable with nothing but a thin sheet over his body, staring up into the face of a man he didn't know. The bright lamp on the ceiling caused his vision to spot at the edges and it was so hard to concentrate. Was the man trying to say something? His lips were moving, probably trying to convey some important information to him. Maybe even explaining why Zack was there and not happily zooming around in heaven - if it existed.

"Mr. Fair? Mr. Fair? Can you hear me?"

"Yea... yea I can." His lips were dry and his throat hoarse when he managed a reply at last. Even saying that much exhausted him. It felt as if he'd been asleep for a thousand years and hadn't brushed his teeth in that long either.

The man - probably a doctor from the looks of his white uniform and the telltale cross on his arm - seemed relieved.

"Welcome back from the dead Mr. Fair. I'm sorry there isn't much time to explain the situation - "

Zack blinked, once, twice. The new information didn't seem to want to join the rest of his scattered brain. So he _had_ died. Did that mean that Cloud survived? The thought made his heart feel lighter, even if the rest of his body felt heavy and sluggish.

"I know this is hard to take, but right now you're a few thousand years into your future, Mr. Fair. I'm part of the organization Gaia - we saved your life - and right now, we're desperately trying to save your Planet too. You see, your friends failed when they tried to stop Jenova. Your Planet didn't survive much longer even after they defeated her because the Lifestream was far too polluted. We've tried several times before to help but we've always been missing something - we were always in the wrong place at the wrong time. And we think you're the solution to preventing your Planet's death and of course, the death of its people too. "

"W-what?" Too much information. Way too much. Zack had only really understood that last part. Everyone was dead? Cloud? Aerith? The family he'd left behind in Gongaga? He hadn't been able to save anyone after all? Hot tears stung the corners of his eyes. If only they would fall instead of lingering there, blurring his vision.

The man continued. "You see, Jenova is not the only one of her kind and the Lifestream doesn't just exist on your planet - it connects every single one in this universe. We've been studying your history for some time, but our technology isn't precise enough yet and it's difficult to pinpoint exactly where and when it all went wrong and what we can do to change it. For that we need you to - " The doctor looked up, and it seemed that someone else had entered the room.

But Zack was less interested in that and more involved with what they were expecting out of him.

To what? Need me to do what? Zack thought and couldn't voice. This was all too much. He'd barely been awake - alive again - for what, a minute, three maybe, and they were telling him the world had ended? Was this some bad practical joke? He hoped fervently that he'd just drank too much spoiled rum and would find himself in the morning with a nasty hangover, and maybe if his luck was good, Aerith would be there to chastise him and Cloud would make fun of him and - But wasn't it already too late? What could he do now that everyone he knew and cared about was gone?

He closed his eyes with a shuddering sigh.

"Is he ready?"

The doctor glanced down and finally noticed the wet lashes on Zack's cheek. "I think he does. Terra help us all if he doesn't."

"Mr. Fair, Mr. Fair! Wake up!" Gentle hands prodded his face and his eyes shot open. "We're sending you back now."

"To where?" He whispered, his voice barely leaving his throat.

"To the past." And suddenly it all made sense. They were giving him a chance to do it all over again. To save his home, save his loved ones - they were sending him back in time.

"That's it?" Zack managed a wry smile. They'd met only moments before and already they were putting the fate of the world in his hands. "You're just going to send me back and hope I don't mess up again?"

"Pretty much." Somehow the response didn't give Zack much confidence. "A few pointers. Every action has a reaction in time - the more things you try to change, the more things will change - Sometimes, letting history run its course is still the best thing."

_Kill Hojo on sight. Check._

"Also time traveling requires great accuracy - we can't be off by even a millisecond - otherwise we can't be sure of where you'll end up, which is not to say we're always correct in our calculations either -"

Zack was having less confidence in this man by the second.

"But don't worry, we already have agents from Gaia settled in. They'll meet up with you and explain everything. Brace yourself for this next part, and for Terra's sake, try not to act like you're from the future," the doctor admonished before cupping his hand over Zack's eyes.

"Wait!" There was still so much more he wanted to ask, so much more he _needed_ to know. But then he noticed something strange.

He certainly felt his lips moving but no sound came out. Only a deep silence met his ears, one that didn't last long enough as a loud explosion painfully rocked his head. He would've cried out in agony if he could - but then the colors came - beautiful, intricate - most he'd never seen before in his life, rushing out of oblivion, dancing in front of his eyes as his body rushed forth to meet them. It felt like heaven, it felt like hell - he was getting torn apart and reborn every moment - until it all came to an screeching, abrupt stop.


	2. Chapter 2

It was raining when he arrived wherever, whenever he was supposed to be going.

Or at least, that's what he noticed much later because at the moment he was far too busy upchucking into the mud and grass. Time travel had been cool and all until the worst motion sickness he'd ever experienced hit him. He was still coughing and trembling even after he'd finally finished heaving up the contents of his stomach. The smell of packaged Shinra Surprise! wafting up from the ground didn't help matters in the least as the world rocked beneath him.

But at least he figured out one thing - as he meekly crawled away from his mess and then collapsed on his back, hoping he'd never have to move again. The "Whenever" he was, he was still with Shinra and eating their crappy food. But when exactly? The questions asked themselves one after the other, whirling in a pool of fog in his mind. How old was he? Was it before he met Sephiroth? Before he met Cloud? Before Angeal died?

Zack lolled his eyes upwards and found he was under a real sky darkened with storm clouds and towering leafy foliage at the edges of his vision.

_So I'm not near Midgar full of bullet holes right now, _he thought numbly to himself. At the back of his mind, he was glad to have woken up to fresh air and grass and life even if he didn't know exactly where he was. It was better than the dark underside of another plate in the sprawling metropolis.

But that also meant he was far away from the church in the slums where a certain girl probably didn't even know he existed yet.

He swallowed the regret before it had a chance to rise up any further than his throat and pushed away the memory. There would be time later to fix all those mistakes but right now, he told himself, he had to concentrate on more important matters even if his brain didn't care to cooperate.

_ Think you idiot! What the hell are you supposed to be doing right now?_

A single droplet that had escaped its leafy home rolled down and landed on his face. The sensation of cold splashing on his cheek seemed to partially wake him from his stupor at least.

All of a sudden he noticed the sound of footsteps, dozens of them, approaching his location at a run. Zack strained to turn his head to see who it was. and happily recognized the flitting of blue Shinra uniforms streaming through the trees, to engage some enemy he couldn't yet see. Finally, someone who could tell him where he was!

He opened his lips to ask for help and for once in his life, his voice failed him. The effort it took to even try to talk left him exhausted and finally, he was able to whisper the words, "Help me." But if the Shinra soldiers noticed him there, none of them did anything about it as they clumsily ambled through the forest and missed him by a yard at most. It seemed they had more pressing issues to preoccupy their mind than a single SOLDIER's comatose body.

_They're running away_, Zack realized as the scene unfolded in front of his eyes. He made out a wave of soldiers in Wutai uniform armed to the teeth following them - along with the crackle of gunshots, and scattered shouts and orders. They were far more agile than the Shinra infantrymen who had passed by moment earlier. These were natives - used to the growths of the forest and the uneven, treacherous ground. They weaved through the trees like ghosts, splitting apart and merging together into a single driving entity intent on destruction.

One unlucky Shinra infantryman lost his footing on stubborn root and stumbled to the ground only ten feet away from Zack. Someone stopped to help him and shot wildly in the other direction to slow the enemy approach. The rest of his comrades didn't even pause to slow down or look; they kept running even as he screamed.

The Wutains were merciless in their pursuit, filling the air with foreign war cries. The soldiers that fell behind the group were turned into bloody things that trembled and then lay still on the ground. Others were victims to fatally accurate shuriken and crumpled to the ground with startled cries as the sharp barbs pierced vulnerable body parts. 

Several yards away from him, a soldier was weakly removing a spear that had nearly pierced all the way from the front to the back. Zack didn't think it was possible for him to do it himself, but the boy - because he looked as young as he - was stubborn. He yanked and tugged until it came free with a sickening gurgle. Then a dribble of blood ran past the satisfied smile on his lips and he fell to the ground lifelessly.

When the whole of the Wutain troop, which had outnumbered Shinra's at least three fold finally passed through the clearing, they left a wake of death like Zack had never seen.

He shut his eyes to the bodies littered across the ground, unmoving, and if he breathed through his mouth, he wouldn't have to take in the pungent coppery smell of blood hanging in the air - but he couldn't shut his ears. Piercing the din like marked crescendos blasted from an orchestra, demanded by some invisible conductor, were wretched cries of pain from unwitting victims left alive. 

Some cried for help that wouldn't come in time, for release from their pain. Others cried for their loved ones, who were all far away and wouldn't know that their brother / son / husband had been dead for weeks until Shinra sent out the customary letters with photocopied signatures and a fill in the blank name and date.

All their families would know of their untimely death was that they died heroes for a just cause. Even if the truth was that they'd died in the middle of nowhere for the sake of Shinra's greed.

Zack's insides roiled. He'd only been alive again for a total of ten minutes and already it was too much for him to handle. Everything was all too real - all too sad - and the shock of it was enough to send him back to the merciful darkness of unconsciousness.


End file.
